海角社区 | Center for Academic Success & Enrichment

Writing Center

Writing Workshops
Meet the Mentors
Make an Appointment

The Writing Center is located on the first floor of the library. Writing mentors, who come from a variety of majors, are trained to provide feedback as interested and critical readers, ask questions that prompt your project鈥檚 development, and offer revision strategies. You can visit the Writing Center for support at any stage of the writing process, whether you鈥檙e just getting started or nearing your deadline. Mentors can help with any writing activity, including:

generating ideas and developing content
paragraph development and coherence
improving language choices
sentence-level editing and proofing
revision strategies
citation and formatting

The mentor will not correct or edit your work for you; instead, they will offer strategies you may use to write more effectively in the long-term. Currently, the Writing Center offers the following appointment types:

Face-to-Face Appointments
Phone Appointments
Video Appointments (using Microsoft Teams)
International English Support Appointments (an opportunity for English Language Learners to develop their fluency through one-on-one conversations with mentors)

After each session, the mentor will email you and your instructor a summary of the work you accomplished during the session. Please go to our Appointments tab to schedule and learn more!

Services We Provide	Services We DO NOT Provide
We help writers discover and carry out their intentions for a piece of writing. We talk through a writing assignment to help the writer understand the assignment. We act as an informed audience and provide immediate, constructive feedback on a piece of writing 鈥� in terms of writing processes, content, structure, and style. We suggest a variety of strategies to writers as they generate ideas and plans for a piece of writing. These invention strategies include freewriting, listing or brainstorming, mapping or clustering, and outlining, as well as others. We help writers identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and use this information to improve their drafts. We discuss and model useful writing strategies. We discuss only one piece of writing per session. We affirm the writer鈥檚 efforts. We adapt our approach as needed.	We cannot presume to fully explain an assignment to a writer on behalf of the instructor who made the assignment. If a writer does not have enough information to understand an assignment, we should suggest that the writer go back for more information. We do not generate ideas, make outlines, or develop organizational plans for writers. Instead, we ask questions, model, and offer strategies that help writers generate ideas, make outlines, etc. We do not compose drafts for writers. We may, however, model an approach to writing an essay, thesis, paragraph, sentence, works cited, etc. We do not 鈥渃orrect鈥� or edit whole papers for errors in grammar, usage, or mechanics. Instead, we may model revising or editing processes or sentence-level corrections on a portion of the writing. We may then ask the writer to apply those same processes or strategies to another portion of the writing. We do not write on the writer鈥檚 piece unless to pose questions or identify possible issues to address. We do not write any of the corrections or revisions. Instead, we direct the writer to write his or her own revisions. We do not accept pieces dropped off at the Writing Center to be proofread or edited. The Writing Center is a place of collaboration for teaching and learning, not a proofreading or copyediting service. We cannot predict a response to (or grade for) the piece of writing by its intended/course-related audience. We do not interfere with the relationship between the writer and the instructor. We do not offer false praise. We do not demean the writing, the efforts of the writer, or the writer.

Services We Provide

Services We DO NOT Provide

We help writers discover and carry out their intentions for a piece of writing.
We talk through a writing assignment to help the writer understand the assignment.
We act as an informed audience and provide immediate, constructive feedback on a piece of writing 鈥� in terms of writing processes, content, structure, and style.
We suggest a variety of strategies to writers as they generate ideas and plans for a piece of writing. These invention strategies include freewriting, listing or brainstorming, mapping or clustering, and outlining, as well as others.
We help writers identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and use this information to improve their drafts.
We discuss and model useful writing strategies.
We discuss only one piece of writing per session.
We affirm the writer鈥檚 efforts.
We adapt our approach as needed.

We cannot presume to fully explain an assignment to a writer on behalf of the instructor who made the assignment. If a writer does not have enough information to understand an assignment, we should suggest that the writer go back for more information.
We do not generate ideas, make outlines, or develop organizational plans for writers. Instead, we ask questions, model, and offer strategies that help writers generate ideas, make outlines, etc.
We do not compose drafts for writers. We may, however, model an approach to writing an essay, thesis, paragraph, sentence, works cited, etc.
We do not 鈥渃orrect鈥� or edit whole papers for errors in grammar, usage, or mechanics. Instead, we may model revising or editing processes or sentence-level corrections on a portion of the writing. We may then ask the writer to apply those same processes or strategies to another portion of the writing.
We do not write on the writer鈥檚 piece unless to pose questions or identify possible issues to address. We do not write any of the corrections or revisions. Instead, we direct the writer to write his or her own revisions.
We do not accept pieces dropped off at the Writing Center to be proofread or edited. The Writing Center is a place of collaboration for teaching and learning, not a proofreading or copyediting service.
We cannot predict a response to (or grade for) the piece of writing by its intended/course-related audience.
We do not interfere with the relationship between the writer and the instructor.
We do not offer false praise.
We do not demean the writing, the efforts of the writer, or the writer.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Follow the Writing Center on Twitter and Instagram at WritingCenterLU and on Facebook at 海角社区 Writing Center for up-to-date news and updates about the Writing Center.

For questions about the Writing Center, please contact Jasmine Castillo, Writing Center Assistant Director, via e-mail at castiljs@lewisu.edu or by calling (815) 836-5664.

Writing Center Contact Information: 815-836-5427, writingcenter@lewisu.edu